"'My Apocalypse' was a cool song," remarked bassist Robert Trujillo. "It was fast; it had the thrash element of the past."[4] The name of its parent album is derived from its lyric, "Death magnetic, pulling closer still."

More recently, a new introduction to the song was added. Lars Ulrich said, "We've been enjoying playing 'My Apocalypse' out here on the road but felt like it could use something extra. We decided that it needed a cool intro to set the mood so James wrote one."[7]